Arrest and Search Laws

I'm doing research for school on Obscenity in the U.S. Why do adult pornographic videos, strip clubs, adult stores, and adult pornographic web sites have impunity when it comes to the law???

Very good question: they don't have total impunity, especially strip clubs: zoning laws change, sometimes there are indecency acts in place.

There is a big case on obscenity that has pretty much set the tone for most if not all obscenity cases. Ever hear of the phrase: i'll know it when I see it?


Miller v. California , 413 U.S. 15 (1973) (The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, Roth, supra, at 489, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. If a state obscenity law is thus limited, First Amendment values are adequately protected by ultimate independent appellate review of constitutional claims when necessary. The jury may measure the essentially factual issues of prurient appeal and patent offensiveness by the standard that prevails in the forum community, and need not employ a "national standard").
Today we leave open the way for California to send a man to prison for distributing brochures that advertise books and a movie under freshly written standards defining obscenity which until today's decision were never the part of any law. The Court has worked hard to define obscenity and concededly has failed (Douglas, J., dissenting).



Here are some other cases:


http://www.findlaw.com/01topics/06constitutional/cases.html

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

Very good question: they don't have total impunity, especially strip clubs: zoning laws change, sometimes there are indecency acts in place.

There is a big case on obscenity that has pretty much set the tone for most if not all obscenity cases. Ever hear of the phrase: i'll know it when I see it?


Miller v. California , 413 U.S. 15 (1973) (The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, Roth, supra, at 489, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. If a state obscenity law is thus limited, First Amendment values are adequately protected by ultimate independent appellate review of constitutional claims when necessary. The jury may measure the essentially factual issues of prurient appeal and patent offensiveness by the standard that prevails in the forum community, and need not employ a "national standard").
Today we leave open the way for California to send a man to prison for distributing brochures that advertise books and a movie under freshly written standards defining obscenity which until today's decision were never the part of any law. The Court has worked hard to define obscenity and concededly has failed (Douglas, J., dissenting).



Here are some other cases:


http://www.findlaw.com/01topics/06constitutional/cases.html

Obscenity Laws

Thank you for your frank replys...It seems the decency laws vary from county to state ...how is one to apply them? Why is one jurisdiction impurvious to the relevence of the prevailly law, and other (many others) prosecute???How does the local police decide if they will police this environment? I believe it goes back to the victim-less crime...what do you think????????????